Government Not Driving IPv6 for Enterprise - Page 2

Cisco's Gourlay admitted that he's just not seeing U.S.-based enterprises
rushing to adopt IPv6 since address depletion is not a pain point.

"The unfortunate thing is we can legislate for the desired outcome we'd like
to have, but the reality is the human factor will dictate how quickly we move,"
Gourlay said. "People are still comfortable managing IPv4, and it will be a
long time before they're comfortable dealing with a 128-bit IPv6 address that
you can't remember."

Some basic issues about deployment face IPv6, according to Gourlay. A simple
item like will the printer work with IPv6 and can the phone system handle
it.

The idea of a dual stack of IPv4 and IPv6 is how IPv6 is being initially
deployed to deal with some of the interoperability issues. Gourlay explained
that IPv4 and IPv6 are two separate addressing schema.

"Remember with Windows 95 you'd have a Novell NetWare network, and you'd
check IPX and IP at the same time it's not dissimilar," Gourlay commented. "So
while it's logically disparate physically they'll integrate into the same
switching and routing infrastructure and the network is servicing it. It's just
a question of what addressing schema you will use to address and target an end
device."

Gourlay noted that for IPv6 to be more widely adopted by enterprise there
has to be some kind of benefit to them.

"We're not taking the tact of pushing IPv6 onto people," Gourlay said. "We
want to educate about it and that we develop products so that people are
capable of making a decision and one that they are operational capable of
supporting."

Juniper's LeMaster argues, however, that IPv6 is coming and it's time to
embrace it.

"There is still some lingering view that we need a compelling need or a
killer app that will instantly create a business case for people to begin using
IPv6," LeMaster said.

"In our view, IPv6 is coming; it will continue to develop as the new global
IP standard, and new applications will grow to embrace it; and the mandate is
laying the foundation for those new services and applications. They're coming
and will continue to be developed."